With the presidential circus having left their backyard, New Hampshire's Senate candidates lost little time this week digging into each other's commitment to limiting spending in what's expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive Senate races in the country.

Just days after Vermont Sen. Bernard Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic primary with 60 percent of the vote — a presidential race in which he's made campaign finance a big issue against Hillary Clinton — Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte came out with a surprising campaign finance proposal of her own. “Campaigns don't have to be driven by third-party groups — we can change the status quo and take a stand to say that this race should be about New Hampshire," she wrote to her Democratic rival, Gov. Maggie Hassan, in challenging her to sign a "People's Pledge" to limit outside spending in their Senate race.

Presidential campaign signs are piling up at New Hampshire's transfer stations (more colloquially known as dumps), their temporary place of rest until called up for their next mission — a deployment to Massachusetts' or Maine's nominating contests, perhaps, or a repeat Granite State tour in November.

After the first-in-the-nation primary, public works crews pluck yard signs from the state's highway medians and deliver them to transfer stations, where campaigns can retrieve them. With candidates now long gone for sunnier states, their entourages and the national media flock to the next stop on the primary trail, leaving Manchester quiet, save for the local chatter about how well Donald Trump performed Tuesday night and what a bad couple of days Florida Sen. Marco Rubio had.

HOOKSETT, N.H. — The long line of cars was still snaking down the dark country road on their way to the Hillary Clinton “victory party” when the networks called the New Hampshire primary for Bernie Sanders.

While it is an occupational hazard of the pundit trade to overreact to everything, the double-digit defeat here of Hillary in her second star-crossed race for the White House was more of a damaging blow than the clotted result in the Iowa caucuses.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in front of a wax statue of John Wayne during a news conference at the John Wayne Museum on Jan. 19 in Winterset, Iowa. (Photo By Al Drago/CQ Roll Call)

A wealthy businessman-turned-politician promised his countrymen a “miracle,” serving voters a cocktail of bombastic nationalist rhetoric and boasts about his business acumen.

Prominent publications such as The New York Times branded him “a man of no particular ideology,” who “exploited vague slogans” on the campaign trail. The Economist, Roll Call's sister publication, called him “a controversial tycoon with few coherent policies,” observing that the man “acts like a businessman who has seen a market niche ... and is rushing to fill it.”

Despite the snowpocalypse expected to hit the East Coast on Friday, leaders on both sides of the issue are gearing up to mark another anniversary of the Supreme Court’s abortion decision.

Since the year after Roe v. Wade in 1973, anti-abortion advocates have been protesting every year on the anniversary at the March for Life, the organizers say that despite the forecast, this year's March for Life will not be canceled on Friday.

Democrats in North Carolina are hoping McCrory has overplayed his hand. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images File Photo)

Despite Democrats' surprising victory last week in Louisiana — where state Rep. John Bel Edwards beat Republican Sen. David Vitter in the runoff – they hold only 18 gubernatorial seats, compared to the 31 held by Republican governors.

Next year, Democrats will defend eight seats, including ones in targeted U.S. Senate battle grounds such as Missouri and New Hampshire, while Republicans will defend four. Missouri: With incumbent Democrat Jay Nixon on his way out, Republicans believe one of their top pickup opportunities is in Missouri, where the chief executive's office has been held by Democrats for all but four of the past 22 years.

EMILY's List, a group that supports Democratic women who back abortion rights, put four more Republican senators "On Notice" Tuesday — a signal the group could spend money to try to topple those incumbents in 2016.

The four are among Democrats' top targets next year, when the party will seek to net the five seats necessary to ensure Senate control. All four are likely to face female challengers whom EMILY's List has endorsed or is looking at endorsing in the coming months.